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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Sing that white man's melody

Drive continues to zoom its way into my affections, but given this week's episode, I have to say the outlook is not good for diversity on this show. This week, one of only two black characters (both women) was killed (after explaining that God had told her she was going to win) and one of only two Latino characters ended the episode unconscious with a bullet wound to the gut, so things don't look good for him, either.

I mean, I understand that this is a Fox show, the network for whom diversity usually means animated series. But seriously, Fox should be following the CW's lead by at least attempting to add some racial flavor to its offerings (because race is the only form of diversity the networks will even touch, the disabled characters on ER notwithstanding). Perhaps Drive could borrow some of the racially ambiguous contestants from America's Next Top Model (some of whom have already demonstrated their acting...ahem...prowess on Veronica Mars and the like) or The Pussycat Dolls, though the Drive folks would need to steer clear of ANTM's winners if inclusion is their goal, since more than half of the show's winners have been, you guessed it, skinny white girls. Way to make a statement, Tyra! But at least she's trying! Drive? Not so much. Drive perplexes me to a degree. In some respects, the show continues to deliver: camera angles and shooting techniques so vivid they inspired a touch of motion sickness in this blogger, more Fred, lots more Mal, unexpected plots, etc. On the other hand, the clue for where the next pit stop would be was "Surrender, America," and it took the entire episode for most of the teams to figure out where that was. (Think about it for like two seconds and you'll have it, I promise.) Either the clues need to get way more obscure or the clues need to not be part of the action because they just make the characters seem, well, kinda dumb. And therefore not very sympathetic. We are a sophisticated viewing audience, people! We can handle more cryptogenic subterfuge, trust me!